World of Warcraft News and Raiding Strategies RSS Feed

by Published on 2012-04-07 07:54 AM

Diablo 3 - Witch Doctor Patch 15 Skills, Darkness Falls. Heroes Rise. Mini Site FAQ, Beta Screenshots

Beta Build 15544 Misc Changes
  • Call to Arms: Silvershard Mine - The profiteering Venture Co. has managed to sell the Silvershard Mine rights to both the Alliance and Horde! Even now, mercenaries hired by rival mining operations from Ironforge and Bilgewater Bay clash over the precious resources...
  • Call to Arms: Temple of Katmogu - Golden Lotus operatives discovered an ancient and powerful artifact in the long-sealed Temple of Katmogu. Tushui and Huojin monks battle over the mysterious device to this day, enlisting whatever allies they can from the Alliance and Horde.
  • Heart of the Nightwing - New mail template. Grasped tightly and clutched to one's breast, this enchanted heart of volcanic glass can transform the bearer into an Obsidian Nightwing.
  • A new title was added: Farmer %s.
  • Maps were added for Kun-Lai Summit and Vale of Eternal Blossoms.

Scenarios
  • New Scenario - Black Ox Temple
  • New Scenario Objectives - Rescue all the Villagers and Defeat Vengeful Hui.
  • Valley Of Power Scenario renamed to Temple of Katmogu.
  • Panda Fishing Village Scenario renamed to Greenstone Village.
Pet Battles
  • Textures for different weather states were added.
  • BATTLE_PET_FAVORITE - Set Favorite
  • BATTLE_PET_RELEASE - Release
  • BATTLE_PET_RENAME - Rename
  • BATTLE_PET_SUMMON - Summon
  • BATTLE_PET_UNFAVORITE - Remove Favorite
  • CORE_ABILITIES - Core Abilities
  • MAX_BATTLE_PET_TEXT - Pets: %d/500
  • PET_BATTLE_AREA_EFFECT - Area Effect:
  • PET_BATTLE_SELECT_A_PET - Select a pet!
  • TOOLTIP_WILDBATTLEPET_LEVEL_CLASS - Pet Level %s %s


Noblegarden Comes to Azeroth
Noblegarden begins on April 8th this year and will run until April 15th. This year brings a brand new reward, the Swift Springstrider, which can be purchased for Noblegarden Chocolate x 500. The mount is also very rarely found inside the Brightly Colored Eggs.


This year hasn't brought any changes to finding Brightly Colored Eggs. Horde players can find them in Brill, Bloodhoof Village, Falconwing Square, and Razor Hill. Alliance players can find eggs in Kharanos, Goldshire, Dolanaar, and Azure Watch. Don't forget to equip your Egg Basket to speed up collection!

All of the Noblegarden items can be found in one of the eggs, except for the Tome of Polymorph: Rabbit and Noblegarden Egg. Don't forget to collect all of them items that you need to complete Noble Gardener if you are going for the What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been achievement!

You can purchase the same items as previous years, as well as the new mount:




Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Hunter (Forums)
Hunter Pet Skills
Since the system is currently a little hard to ascertain in beta, I'll try and summarize the basics. Hopefully we'll have this working in a build or two.
  • Every pet has 3 specs: Ferocity, Tenacity and Cunning. These work much like class specs, with a similar UI.
  • Pets come with the spec you'd expect (Ferocity for kitties) but you can change it. If you want a tanking cat or a DPS crab, you can. If you have a favorite pet, you can just always use that one and swap the spec around.
  • I hope to see A LOT of DPS crabs.
  • Each spec comes with 2-3 active and 2-3 passive abilities. We took a careful look at what pet talents most hunters were taking and tried to take the best of those. Things like Roar of Sacrifice, Last Stand and Heart of the Phoenix made the cut.
  • We didn't think we were getting a ton of gameplay out of the pet talents on live -- players interacted with them even less than the class talents -- and we didn't think pets needed the full tiered system like the Mists talent implementation, so we decided the best way to offer pet customization is to let hunters choose their pet mostly because of how it looks (and its one special ability) and not from its role.
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Monk (Forums)
Monk Animations for all Races
All monks will have special animations. The animators started with the pandaren, since they had so many pandaren animations to create in the first place, but we are slowly getting them added to the existing races. More animations should show up each beta build. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Brewmaster feedback
Thanks for the feedback, everyone. Monks are a new class, and we will be iterating on them quite a bit and often we change mechanics a lot faster than we make beta builds. With that in mind, we wanted to clarify our design intent on some of the abilities:

Dizzying Haze -- We increased the threat and lowered the energy. We're not crazy about making it do damage because then it risks competing with other Brewmaster abilities. We really don't want Dizzying Haze used rotationaly on single-targets. We also run into whether or not the ability should break CC if it does damage.

AE tanking -- We agree that monks need a little more ability to cleave.

Missing Jabs -- It isn't intended to lose all Energy on a miss. We will fix that.
  • Our intent for Brewmasters is to use Guard, Purifying Brew and Shuffle as reactive and proactive abilities that you want to use to react or prevent damage spikes. We're not there yet with the cooldowns, durations and costs, which are the kinds of numbers we tune constantly after tests and playtests. Mechanically we think the pieces of the puzzle are there, but they don't fit together quite right yet.
  • We agree that Chi generation is too slow for Brewmasters. Expel Harm is one possible Chi generator. Also keep in mind that there is currently a miss penalty on Energy and Chi that we plan on removing.
  • We also agree that the Brewmaster procs still need a bit more spice.
  • Free Tiger Palm is probably too strong.
  • In our current builds, Brewmasters have a big health bonus, currently higher than any other tank. We're actively iterating on tanking numbers for all specs, but we need to consider a lot of different situations (single boss, groups, healers spamming, damage over long periods, different gear levels, etc.)
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Mistweaver Feedback
  • Mana regeneration and healing throughput is something that is still being tuned, so that will feel a bit off for a while longer.
  • We had to tone down Mistweaver DPS. In our raid tests, they were contributing too much damage while still being effective healers.
  • Chi Wave is something we're still tuning. The cooldown is now around 8 seconds, which may be too short. At the moment it accounts for half of the healing in raid situations.
  • Jab and other DPS abilities scale with your weapon, and also with AP. The damage is normalized in such a way that any weapon choice is equal to the other, so weapons are an aesthetic choice. We'll probably have the DPS abilities scale with SP, as long as they're balanced.
  • We've changed Mistweavers to also have a 1 second GCD as with the other two specializations.
  • Can you explain more about the problem with a longer Soothing Mists? The mana per second is the same whether it's a short or long channel. Do you feel compelled to complete the channel? Clipping it should not incur a mana penalty.
  • Cherry Mana Tea is intended to be "sipped" during break periods. Good Mistweavers will end a fight with as low mana as possible and as low Cherry Mana Tea stacks as possible. There are periods where you can't afford any breaks, but those vary by encounter. It should no longer break on taking damage. Stacks is something we are still iterating upon.
  • We've changed Jasmine Tea to an upfront mana cost that will generate Chi over time (think "Chi Tap"). We're still iterating a lot on this design though. The intent is that the Mistweaver has an edge on precision healing, while the Windwalker has less control but can gain Chi quickly.
  • Expel Harm only does damage if you "effectively" healed. If it's all overheal, no damage will happen. We intend for all monks to use the ability. Windwalkers can heal themselves.
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Priest (Forums)
Priest Feedback
Did you realize you can take the individual buttons out of a "pop out" like Chakra and put them anywhere on your bar that you would like? We'll consider the stance bar implementation, but we want to get more players trying it first.

What is the reason behind the increased mana cost for certain spells? Particularly holy word: chastise which on live costs about 7.8k but in beta it's around 15k. Also, mass dispell's mana cost shot up to 45k, which is almost half of the finite mana pool that priests now have.
Chastise is probably an oversight. Off the top of my head, I can't imagine why it would need to be more expensive. Mass Dispel is expensive because under the new dispel model, it is very powerful. We want priests to use normal dispel some instead of letting Mass solve every problem.

Also, would you consider removing the mana cost for power infusion? Most of the newer priest talents (save the top tier talents) like void shift, etc. use cooldowns rather than mana.
Power Infusion probably doesn't need a cost. I'll discuss it with the team.

P.S. I should add that we completed a big audit of heals (for all classes) recently, and concluded that the mana costs were reasonable for the most part but that the heals were much too small for the Mists health pools. We buffed all of the heals quite a bit. We want mana to be less painful than it was at the start of Cataclysm, but we want it to matter more than it did at the end of Cataclysm. We want the slope of the line to be less steep -- your higher throughput and regen in later patches will still make heals more efficient overall, just less so than they became in Dragon Soul. The static mana pool helps a lot with that. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Shaman (Forums)
Enhancement Damage
It is worth pointing out that one of our goals is for nobody's damage to drop when you convert your Cataclysm level 85 character to a Mists level 85 character. The sources of your damage may change as rotations change somewhat, but once you're comfortable with those new rotations, your damage should be similar.

Also remember that number tuning is one of the last things we do. There is no point in spending hours testing numbers if we decide that a particular ability or mechanic was a boneheaded idea and needs to be redesigned. We try to keep the numbers sane enough that players still feel like they can give feedback though. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Warrior (Forums) / Rogue (Forums)
Ranged Attack for Melee Classes
Rogues and warriors will have a baseline "Throw" attack, that does a tiny bit of damage but mostly serves just to get a creature's attention. This attack will not require a ranged weapon. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Warrior (Forums) - Paladin (Forums) - Druid (Forums) - Death Knight (Forums)
Tanks and Expertise
We want tanks to care about hit and expertise as mitigation stats, because hitting a boss leads to resources, which leads to higher survival. We could make gear with just parry, dodge and mastery (and just dodge and mastery for some tanks) but we think that gets boring. You might not necessarily need to cap hit and expertise, depending on how much avoidance or mastery you'd be talking about sacrificing. That's not the kind of tuning we have completed yet. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Protection Feedback
There is always a risk of jumping into a thread like this to only touch on a couple of points that it will derail what is a pretty interesting discussion. However, I did want to respond to a few things.

1) We still think the overall design of tanks attacking in order to build up resources for defenses is a sound one. In a world where threat isn't hard to maintain beyond the first few seconds, we believe tanks would quickly grow uninterested in their rotation if it wasn't tied to defense. (The reasons we don't think managing threat is fun gameplay after the first few seconds is something I've gone into before, so I won't belabor the point here.)

2) We agree with the feedback that warriors, and to a lesser extent paladins, aren't getting enough out of their block abilities (Shield Block and SotR). We erred on the side of making them forgiving so that tanks wouldn't worry about splatting if they failed to use one of those attacks, but we think now we were too conservative, to the point that they don't feel (to use a word many posters have used) visceral. You should notice a change in incoming damage when you use these abilities. So we are trying the following changes. Let us know how they feel.

  • The next iteration of Shield Block we are going to try is that it blocks ALL attacks for 6 sec. Furthermore, those blocks have a chance to become critical blocks, which keeps mastery relevant.
  • We think Shield of the Righteous needs less tweaking since it already has a damage component; it is noticeable when it gets used. However, to make sure it also provides survivability, the initial automatic block will reduce 75% of damage while any subsequent blocks during the 6 sec duration will block for 50% of damage. (A normal block is 30%.) Those numbers are subject to iteration, but again the idea is that mastery will still affect SotR's mitigation.
  • We also agree that the Guardian druid combination of mastery and Savage Defense feels too passive in comparison with the plate tanks. We are going to change Savage Defense to a chance to avoid damage, which gives it more parity with say the warrior. The warrior has a reliable block, but a more random mastery, while the druid has a reliable mastery, with a more random "block." To partially offset this change, Frenzied Regen will do all of its healing instantly.
3) We understand that as players, you want to minimize the randomness of tanking. That makes you good tanks. But as designers, we have to make sure that randomness has its place. Randomness is one of the challenges in the game -- by design -- that you need to overcome. Tanking with randomness eliminated would be static and repetitive. You wouldn't have "oh snap" moments where you or a healer had to use a cooldown. You could probably predict from that first boss swing whether you'd win or lose the fight, since every swing would feel about the same way. Of course we don't want tanking to be brutally frustrating, but we don't want it to be effective yet boring either.

4) We also understand that long-term Protection warriors aren't yet feeling that frenetic, button mashy playstyle with which they have become familiar. We are experimenting with a new proc, currently called Ultimatum, in which Devastate has a chance to make the next Heroic Strike or Cleave free. We don't want to return Devastate to Sword and Board however. Shield Slam (and therefore Sword and Board) provide rage, which is a mitigation resource now. Having Devastate lead to better mitigation would mean you had to prioritize the no-cooldown Devastate above other attacks such as Storm Bolt. Hopefully the Ultimatum implementation will deliver that "fish for procs" feeling of the old Sword and Board, while giving offtanks a more dynamic rotation (since they can't rely on Revenge).

5) We don't think it's critical that all tanks have the same number and character of cooldowns. In fact, we think doing so would make all of the tanks play too similarly when what we actually want to do is give them each their own character, provided each can still tank any content in the game with a reasonably similar amount of effort. We give everyone a Last Stand and Shield Wall equivalent and try to have another option or two. It's okay that Blood DKs have a lot of cooldowns -- that has always been a DK thing -- as long as they aren't much more effective than other tanks.

While I agree with the idea, its a little extreme. Druids have a full 7 CDs and SD, DK's still have a ton. Warriors are stuck with SW, and Rallying Cry, which normally gets raid priority.
Rallying Cry and Last Stand no longer share a cooldown. You can use Rallying Cry to help the raid or to help yourself as a mini Last Stand.

This brings Druids and Warriors closer together, but Paladins will be left in the dust with this change. Warriors will be block capped while still having a chance to block for more than Paladins (other than the initial block after using SotR). I really like the concept of shield tanks block capping with their active mitigation up, but Paladins need to get similar treatment.
We're only talking about 6 sec though. That's not many boss attacks. The optimal situation for the warrior is around 3 attacks that do 60% less damage, while for the paladin it is 1 attack at 75% and 2 attacks at 50%. The worst situation for the warrior will be 3 attacks at 30% and the worst situation for the paladin will be 1 attack at 75%. The chance of the paladin having the worst case situation should be lower though, and if two unblocked attacks back to back can kill you, then the encounter is probably overtuned (because what happens when you don't have Shield of the Righteous available?)

In addition, paladins have a potent self-heal in Word of Glory and a paladin at 5 Holy Power can probably generate a new Holy Power for a second cooldown (5 - 3 + 1 = 3) faster than a warrior at 100 rage can generate 20 rage for a second cooldown (100 - 60 + 20 = 60). The numbers may not be perfect yet, but they seem within the realm of tuning.

And there's the not impossible chance that when all is said and done, the RNG is being unkind and you're plumb out of buttons to hit. Then what? You die and get told it's "fun"?
RNG is often unkind, but you should always have sufficient tools (as a group) to handle it. The application of those tools to the problem at hand is one of the things that separates good guilds from great ones. If you are dependent on the tank getting lucky to survive then you're probably doing content too difficult for your group (which you can often solve by improving your gear) or we screwed up the encounter tuning somewhere along the way (which you can often solve by going to the forums).

So.. instead of automatically randomly procing Savage Defense, I must hit a button so that maybe I will have a Savage Defense proc? Huh?
In a nutshell, but that's really the equivalent of the warrior hitting Shield Block and hoping that all of that mastery gives her a critical block, while your armor from mastery is always reliable.

Part of the reason the druid mechanics worked out as they did is that we needed to make haste and crit reasonable survival stats, since they appear on druid gear.

Again, don't confuse "As a player, I want to minimize RNG to make myself a better tank" with "The designers should minimize RNG because that makes me a better tank." I'd wager you'd be bored if combat was that predictable. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Fan Art Book Poster
A poster for a fan art book by Chinese artists was posted recently and it is worth a look!

by Published on 2012-04-06 09:12 AM

Mists of Pandaria Beta - Beta Patch Build 15544
A new patch should hit the Mists of Pandaria beta servers before the end of the week, changes below!

Flying Panther Mount
A new Flying Panther Mount has been added to the game files!


We also got a few more details on the Jeweled Onyx Panther from spells added in this patch.

Originally Posted by MMO-Champion
Jewelcrafting

Uncategorized

Mounts
  • Dawnstone Panther Summons and dismisses a Dawnstone Panther. 1.5 sec cast
  • Emerald Panther Summons and dismisses an Emerald Panther. 1.5 sec cast
  • Ruby Panther Summons and dismisses a Ruby Panther. 1.5 sec cast
  • Sapphire Panther Summons and dismisses a Sapphire Panther. 1.5 sec cast
  • Obsidian Nightwing Transforms you into a Obsidian Nightwing, allowing you to fly very fast and carry an ally on your back. This is a flying mount. 1.5 sec cast
  • RAF Mount III Summons and dismisses a RAF Mount III. This mount changes depending on your Riding skill and location. 1.5 sec cast




Item Additions
Only a few items added with this patch, I only kept the most interesting ones!

Level Type Slot Name
90MountNotEquippableRuby Panther
90MountNotEquippableEmerald Panther
90MountNotEquippableDawnstone Panther
90MountNotEquippableSapphire Panther
60MountNotEquippableHeart of the Nightwing
90QuestNotEquippableTiger Fang Inscription
90QuestNotEquippableTiger Claw Inscription
70YellowNotEquippableSomething Expensive
1JunkNotEquippableLegacy of the Masters
1MiscellaneousTabardTushui Tabard
1MiscellaneousTabardHoujin Tabard



Spell Changes
Spell changes are here and as usual keep in mind that:

  • This is a beta, everything can change.
  • Those changes are not official, they're the result of datamining.
  • It's the beginning of the beta and shit is changing so fast that it's a miracle that everything doesn't explode in our face. A few things look weird, we'll try to figure them out over the next few hours to make sure we didn't do anything stupid!
Originally Posted by MMO-Champion
Death Knight (Forums)
Baseline

Blood

Druid (Forums)
Baseline (Lots of funny weird changes there, take them with a grain of salt, could be bugs on our side)
  • Heart of the Wild had a couple of wording changes and clarifications. For example the extra agility and armor for Balance druids now only works in Bear Form.
  • Lacerate (Bear) base damage has been increased by 250%.
  • Mangle (Bear) damage has been increased by 250%.
  • Maul now deals 100% weapon damage plus 1931 instead of [ 35 + 19% of AP ] damage
  • Ravage! (Stampede) now causes 650% damage, down from 750%.
  • Swipe (Bear) damage has been increased 250%
  • Thrash (Bear) damage has been increased by 250%.

Restoration
  • Ironbark now shares a cooldown with Barkskin.

Glyphs
  • Inscription: Glyph of Claw replaced with Glyph of Infected Wounds - Your Shred, Ravage, Maul, and Mangle attacks cause an Infected Wound in the target. The Infected Wound reduces the movement speed of the target by 50%. Lasts 12 sec.

Hunter (Forums)
Beast Mastery
  • Frenzy now lasts 30 sec, up from 20 sec.

Mage (Forums)
Fire

Monk (Forums))
Designer Notes
  • Known Bugs (In Progress)
    • Flying Serpent Kick AOE effect not syncing with visual dest
    • Fortifying Brew not making you immune to healing
    • Tooltip scaling values and/or lack of scaling
    • Chi Wave not bouncing if target dies
    • Fists of Fury arms are not textured, NYI for most races
    • Healing Sphere healing multiple targets if triggered on multiple targets
  • FYI
    • Lot of art/icons/sound not final
    • Windwalker "rotation" WIP

Baseline
  • Blackout Kick now costs 1 Chi, down from 2 Chi. No longer refunds Chi if the target is killed. Can now be used regardless of the target's health, but the target suffers an additional 1328 damage over 8 sec if it's below 50% health.
  • Jab no longer costs energy. (Might be a data bug on our side)
  • Touch of Death now costs 3 Chi, down from 4 Chi.

Brewmaster
  • Breath of Fire now has a 15 sec cooldown.
  • Brewmaster Training now makes your Tiger Palm no longer costs Chi, and when you deal damage with Tiger Palm the amount of your next Guard is increased by 5%. Lasts 30 sec. Stacks up to 3 times.
  • Dizzying Haze now costs 10 Energy, down from 40.
  • Keg Smash *New* You swing a keg of brew, dealing 1666 damage to the target and two nearby enemies and causing their next attack to Missfire within 8 sec, dealing 821 damage to themselves instead of you. 5 yd range, 1 Chi, 8 sec cooldown, Instant

Mistweaver
  • Chi Wave now has a 6 sec cooldown, down from 15 secs.
  • Jasmine Force Tea now costs 3% of base mana and is instant instead of channeled.
  • Renewing Mists now costs 3% of base mana, up from 2%. Base Healing increased by 70% and now heals every 2 seconds instead of every 3 seconds.
  • Soothing Mists healing reduced by 43%. Now has a 15% chance to regenerate 1 Chi, down from 25%.

Windwalker
  • Afterlife - Enemies who die from Blackout Kick have a 50% chance to summon a Chi Sphere.
    • Chi Sphere - A sphere of energy forms from the wake of the fallen enemy. Walking through your Chi Sphere will restore 1 Chi. Lasts for 2 min.
  • Exploding Jade Blossom is now Fire Blossom. Now has a 50 yards range, up from 30 yards. Damage increased by 15%.

Uncategorized/Test Skill?
  • Death Cocoon Encases the target in a harmful cocoon of Chi energy, dealing 5 damage every 1 sec and causing any healing recieved to be damage instead.While in the Cocoon, the target moves at -50% reduced speed and is unable to attack or cast spells. 40 yd range, 2 Chi, 2 min cooldown, Instant

Paladin (Forums)
Retribution
  • Emancipate *New* Unshackles your spirit, freeing you from one movement impairing effect. 25% of base mana, Instant

Holy
  • Daybreak now heals for an amount equal to the original healing done, divided evenly among all targets.

Glyphs

Priest (Forums)
Baseline
  • Feathers From Heaven: New. Place Heavenly Feathers at the target location. Each Heavenly Feather causes a single nearby friendly target to gain 60% movement speed for 4 sec. Only 3 Feathers can be placed at one time. Accumulates an additional charge once every 10 sec.
  • Levitate no longer requires Light Feather.

Shadow

Glyphs

Rogue (Forums)
Baseline
  • Crimson Tempest Finishing move consumes combo points on any nearby target to slash at the flesh of all enemies within 8 yards, dealing Physical damage and causing victims to bleed and suffer an additional 30% of the initial damage over 12 sec:   1 point : [445 + 2.5 + 2.8% of AP + 148 + 2.5 + 1.4% of AP] damage   2 points: [445 + 5 + 5.6% of AP + 148 + 5 + 4.2% of AP] damage   3 points: [445 + 7.5 + 16.5% of AP + 148 + 7.5 + 7% of AP] damage   4 points: [445 + 10 + 22% of AP + 148 + 10 + 22% of AP] damage   5 points: [445 + 12.5 + 27.5% of AP + 148 + 12.5 + 27.5% of AP] damage 5 yd range, 35 Energy, Instant
  • Fan of Knives now generates 1 combo point if it strikes your current combo target.
  • Shadow Blades *New* Draw upon the surrounding shadows to empower your weapons, causing your auto-attacks to deal pure Shadow damage and your combo-point-generating abilties to generate an additional combo point when used. Lasts 12 sec. 3 min cooldown, Instant
  • Throw *New* Hurl a dagger at an enemy target. 30 yd range, 0.5 sec cast

Glyphs

Shaman (Forums)
Baseline

Enhancement
  • Lava Lash now spreads your Flame Shock from the target to up to four enemies within 12 yards.

Glyphs

Warlock (Forums)
Affliction

Demonology
  • Nether Plating now increases Armor Contribution from items by 250% in Demon Form, down from 400%. The duration of stun and snare effects is reduced by 35%, up from 20%.

Destruction
  • Flames of A'lar now has an extra effect - If your demon is still alive, it will be instantly killed and grant you a Burning Ember.

Pet Abilities

Glyphs

Warrior (Forums)
Baseline
  • Heroic Leap now has a 45 sec cooldown, down from 1 min.

Protection
  • Devastate now deals 180% weapon damage, up from 75% weapon damage. Additional damage increased by 40%.
  • Revenge now has a 6 sec cooldown, down from 9 sec. Damage increased by 200%.
  • Shield Slam damage increased by 100%.
  • Thunder Clap damage has been increased by 75%.

Fury
  • Raging Blow now costs 10 Rage, down from 30 Rage. Now deals 150% Weapon Damage, up from 85%.
by Published on 2012-04-05 05:49 AM

Diablo 3 - The Real Box, More on Inferno, Dyes, Poisons, GDC Panel Video, PAX East Party

Alcaz Island Scenario
As always, this is an early version of the area, previewed through unofficial means. This is absolutely not representative of the final version, it's just a preview.



Premade Monks Now Active
With tonight's beta invite wave premade monks are active once again!



WoWDB Pet Pages
Work continues at a steady pace on WoWDB, with the addition of more information for Pets. We now have dedicated pages for all of the Battle Pets and a list of all of the Battle Pet abilities.

Important - The Pet List only lists the companion pets fully implemented in the game files, we'll have to wait for future beta patches to get data on all the other pets. However, there's already a lot of Pet Abilities implemented, check them out!

The pages for individual abilities will show you which pets the attack is strong against, and which pets the attack is weak against. Each pet's page will show you which other pets it is resistant against and which pets it is most vulnerable to. We will continue to add features as the system is fully implemented in the beta.

We're starting to have a lot of background work done on WoWDB and you can expect more visible updates very soon (Including filters and anything to make browsing less painful). We also have a few surprises coming this week if everything goes really well.



Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
SM and Scholomance Armor Models
We discussed this topic with the developers last week a bit. I don't have any conclusive information for you, but they recognize there are a lot of cool items in SM and Scholomance, and they want to try and preserve those in Mists. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

PvP in Mists of Pandaria: 3v3 Arena
I have already commented in your Arena system needs to evolve thread and it was a very good read, so I will move onto your other points. About the “Roller Coaster” feel that you commented on, there will always be nerfs and buffs and that is because we want to achieve the best balance possible among the classes. However, we do our utmost to limit actual spell/ability changes that effect rotations to expansions only, and that is only if we feel it will greatly improve the class.

The new talent system should make constant changes less necessary too, especially with regard to forced respecs since the talents are now more utility-based. In my own personal opinion about changing classes because of a nerf, I feel that I will play what I enjoy the most and right now, as it has been in the past is my warrior. But because in some parts of arena he may struggle does not make me want to play it less.

Your portion about instant CC, healing and damage is very well structured and thought out, the same goes for your comments on self-healing and blanket silences. This is a great thread Rasen, that we can see you have dedicated a lot of time to writing and we hope to see more excellent feedback like this coming from everyone on the forums. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

New J!NX Shirts - Darth Hater
J!NX has finally released their line of Curse brand T-shirts, including two Darth Hater shirts. They include a black basic men's tee and a gray premium tee. Using the code "CURSEGEAR" at checkout will get customers 20% off any Curse J!NX products.

If you want the discount you'll have to hurry as the deal ends 4/8/12. If you prefer MMO-Champion shirts, both the premium and basic shirts are still available.



Trading Card Game Art Gallery Update
The Trading Card game art gallery has been updated with ten new pieces.



by Published on 2012-04-05 12:52 AM

Incoming: 250,000 More Beta Invites - Wave 4
Blizzard is still working hard to make everyone happy and sent another wave of 250,000 Beta Invites, bringing the total to 550,000 Annual Pass Invites since the initial wave of beta testing!
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
That’s right -- we’re in the process of sending 250,000 additional beta-test invites to Annual Pass holders. Keep an eye on your email and Battle.net account for an invitation to come test Mists of Pandaria with us.

As with previous waves, it’s going to take a while for the invites to process, so we recommend checking your games list in Battle.net Account Management to see whether yours has arrived yet. Once it does, you’ll see the Mists of Pandaria beta client available for download from there. We expect this entire wave to take a day or so to complete.

We appreciate the enthusiasm of everyone who signed up for the World of Warcraft Annual Pass, and we’re working hard to get you into the beta. We know you’re excited to explore Pandaria and test the new content, and we’ll keep you posted here in the forums when we’re ready to send out another wave.
by Published on 2012-04-04 05:02 AM

Diablo 3 - Game Systems Reminder, Halls of Agony, Diablo III Pre-Order Box

Blood Legion and Intent Complete All Guild Achievements
Blood Legion of US-Illidan earned every guild achievement early this morning before maintenance and Intent of US-Kel'thuzad did it as soon as possible afterwards. The final achievement necessary was Raid Challenges. Congratulations to both guilds!



Scholomance Preview
While we are waiting for the new level 90 Heroic version of Scholomance, we went back and took a look at the revamped lower level version. There are small new mechanics, changes, and new art that make the dungeon a much nicer experience than before, so watch the video for the full experience.

  • The entire dungeon has new art, increased texture resolutions, and the new lighting system, making for a very nice environment.
  • Janice Barov makes many copies of herself now, requiring you to find the correct one and kill it before she will reappear.
  • After killing Professor Slate, you can drink a potion that will give you increased damage and his model. The potion works as a shapeshift and currently persists outside of the instance. You cannot mount with it however.









2012 World of Warcraft Arena Pass Coming Soon
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
We’re pleased to announce that the 2012 World of Warcraft Arena Pass is nearly here. Starting April 10, players will be able to sign up to compete against like-minded individuals in a dedicated Arena sandbox. The Arena Pass service will feature access to the special tournament realms with level-85 character templates and epic gear from Cataclysm.

As an added bonus, we have included an exclusive reward that players can earn by purchasing their Arena Pass and participating in the competition -- an Armored Murloc in-game pet. Top players will also contend for a chance to achieve the “Vanquisher” title for their live characters. Players that choose to take part in the 2012 Arena Pass will also receive access to a special level-90 realm with upgraded epic gear after they’ve upgraded their accounts with the upcoming Mists of Pandaria expansion.

If you would like to demonstrate your Arena prowess, are eager for a chance to earn the exclusive loot, or just want to reserve a spot in the level-90 Mists of Pandaria Arena Pass realm, please check back next week for more details and be sure to register!

Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Glyphs: What's with the change? Why?
As with talents, we want glyphs to be a choice. Stepping back a moment, we do think there is room in the game for very easy decision -- the kind that don't stress you out for fear of making the wrong one. We don't think glyphs need to be in that category though. We want you to think about them a little bit and not just look up the accepted glyphs for your character.

The old prime glyphs were not choices for anyone who cared much about their performance. We designed them to be no-nonsense throughput increasers, because we feared players would find the glyph system confusing if say a Ret paladin couldn't find a glyph that unequivocally increased DPS. But we didn't like how the glyphs actually felt. They were just a hoop to jump through -- something you might choose once for your character and never interact with again. We shoot for simple to learn and complex to master, and prime glyphs were the poster child for simple to learn, simple to master. The current glyph of Templar's Verdict increases damage by 15%. What Retribution paladin wouldn't want that glyph? (The answer is almost none of them.)

Now that primes are gone, we want all of the majors to be a choice. Some of these are decisions because they have a bonus and a penalty. In these cases, we thought that the glyph without a penalty would be a no-brainer. The glyph of Riptide removes the cooldown of Riptide, but also removes the initial heal. If it just removed the cooldown of Riptide, then every decent Resto shaman would want the glyph. Without the upfront heal though you have to treat Riptide more like Renew -- trading its initial heal for more healing over time. Some shaman will want that and some won't. Some may want it for some situations only. It is, in game designer parlance, an interesting decision.

Another category of major glyphs don't need this downside, because the glyph itself taking one of your precious three slots is sufficient downside. Consider the glyph of Spellsteal, which heals you when you Spellsteal. If you succeed in Spellsteal a lot, then it's a good glyph. But is it better than the glyph of Frost Nova (which lowers its cooldown)? Neither glyph may be exciting to a raiding mage, but both may feel pretty attractive to someone focused on PvP.

Minor glyphs have almost no affect on performance. They are there for convenience or increasingly just fun. They should help customize your character with almost no downside (except that again you can only have 3).

If we are successful with the glyph revamp, you'll see players with lots of different glyphs out there. Some players will love a certain glyph, while others won't care for it. If you still enjoy playing your character but feel you are stuck in a rut, you can try swapping out a glyph for a little variety in how you play. You won't see someone create a forum thread asking "What glyphs should I use for a Fire mage?" or at least if someone does create that thread, the response will be "Try them out and pick the ones you like."

As we continue with beta, letting us know of specific glyphs that you feel are mandatory for a particular type of player would be very useful feedback (not all in this thread, of course). (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Curse PAX East After Party sponsored by PlanetSide 2
Curse is throwing a MASSIVE party for our fans and community at PAX East in Boston. The party will feature open bar, appetizers, DJ, arcade, party favors, and green screen photo opportunity. You won't want to miss it!

RSVP now for a pass and instant access. You'll be 'on the list' and get into the party right away. We'll be sending out a confirmation email prior to the party with further information. You must be 18 or older to enter and 21 or older to enjoy the open bar. The party is Saturday, April 7th from 8 PM to 2 AM at the Boston Seaport Hotel Plaza Ballroom.



Fan Art Update
The World of Warcraft Fan Art Section has been updated with three new pieces of fan artwork.



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